More Articles

Despite long experience with the ways of the world, older people are especially vulnerable to
fraud. According to the Federal Trade Commission, as many as 80 percent of scam victims are older
than 65.

One explanation might lie in a brain region that serves as a built-in crook detector. Called the
anterior insula, this structure — which fires up in response to the face of an unsavory character —
is less active in older people, possibly making them less cagey than younger folks, a new study
finds.

Both the FTC and the FBI have found that older people are easy marks in part because of their
tendency to accentuate the positive.

According to social neuroscientist Shelley Taylor of the University of California, Los Angeles,
research backs up the idea that older people can put a positive spin on things — emotionally
charged pictures, for example, and playing virtual games in which they risk the loss of money.

“Older people are good at regulating their emotions, seeing things in a positive light, and not
overreacting to everyday problems,” she said. But this trait might make them less wary.

To see whether older people really are less able to spot a con artist, Taylor and colleagues
showed photos of faces considered trustworthy, neutral, or untrustworthy to a group of 119 older
adults (ages 55 to 84) and 24 younger adults (ages 20 to 42). Signs of untrustworthiness include
averted eyes; an insincere smile that doesn’t reach the eyes; a smug, smirky mouth; and a backward
tilt to the head. The participants were asked to rate each face on a scale from minus-3 (very
untrustworthy) to 3 (very trustworthy).

In the study, which appeared online in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, the “untrustworthy” faces were
perceived as significantly more trustworthy by the older subjects than by the younger ones.

The researchers then performed the same test on a different set of volunteers, this time imaging
their brains during the process, to look for differences in brain activity between the age
groups.

When the younger subjects were asked to judge whether the faces were trustworthy, the anterior
insula became active; the activity increased at the sight of an untrustworthy face. The older
people, however, showed little or no activation.

Taylor explains that the insula’s job is to collect information not about others but about one’s
own body — sensing feelings, including “gut instincts” — and present that information to the rest
of the brain. “It’s a warning bell that doesn’t seem to work as well in older people.”

By habitually seeing the world in a positive light, older people might be overriding this
warning signal, she said.